After Our Likeness

by Volf, Miroslav

• ISBN13: 9780802844408
• ISBN10: 0802844405
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-10-30
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

This inaugural volume in the Sacra Doctrina series explores the relationship between persons and community in Christian theology. The focus is the community of grace, the Christian church. The point of departure is the thought of the first Baptist, John Smyth, and the notion of church as "gathered community" that he shared with Radical Reformers. Miroslav Volf seeks to counter the tendencies toward individualism in Protestant ecclesiology and to suggest a viable understanding of the church in which both person and community are given their proper due. In the process, Volf engages in a sustained and critical ecumenical dialogue with the Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiologies of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and the metropolitan John Zizioulas. The result is a brilliant ecumenical study that spells out a vision of the church as an image of the triune God.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction to the American Edition	1	(8)
Introduction	9	(20)
1. A Cry of Protest and Its Fate	9	(2)
2. Free Churches: The Churches of the Future?	11	(8)
3. An Ecumenical Study	19	(10)
PART I	29	(98)
I. Ratzinger: Communion and the Whole	29	(44)
1. Faith, Sacrament, and Communion	32	(10)
1.1. Faith, and Communion	33	(6)
1.2. Sacrament and Communion	39	(3)
2. Eucharist and Communion	42	(6)
3. The Word of God and Communion	48	(5)
4. Office and Communion	53	(9)
5. Communio Fidelium	62	(5)
6. Trinitarian and Ecclesial Communion	67	(6)
II. Zizioulas: Communion, One, and Many	73	(54)
1. The Ontology of Person	75	(8)
1.1. Trinitarian Personhood	76	(5)
1.2. Human Personhood	81	(2)
2. Ecclesial Personhood	83	(14)
2.1. Christ: Person and Community	84	(4)
2.2. Baptism	88	(3)
2.3. Truth	91	(6)
3. Ecclesial Communion	97	(10)
3.1. Eucharist and Communion	97	(6)
3.2. Community and Communities	103	(4)
4. The Structure of the Communion	107	(20)
4.1. Institution and Event	108	(1)
4.2. Bishop	109	(4)
4.3. Laity	113	(4)
4.4. Apostolicity and Conciliarity	117	(10)
PART II	127	(156)
III. The Ecclesiality of the Church	127	(32)
1. Identity and Identification of the Church	128	(7)
1.1. What Is the Church?	128	(2)
1.2. Where Is the Church?	130	(5)
2. We Are the Church!	135	(19)
2.1. The Church as Assembly	137	(8)
2.2. The Church and the Confession of Faith	145	(9)
3. Church and Churches	154	(5)
IV. Faith, Person, and Church	159	(32)
1. Faith and the Church	160	(12)
1.1. Ecclesial Mediation of Faith	160	(8)
1.2. Individualism of Faith?	168	(4)
2. The Ecclesial Character of Salvation	172	(9)
2.1. The Ecclesiality of Salvation	172	(3)
2.2. The Genesis of a Concrete Church	175	(6)
3. Personhood in the Ecclesial Community	181	(10)
3.1. Personhood and Christian Being	181	(4)
3.2. Person in the Communion of the Spirit	185	(6)
V. Trinity and Church	191	(30)
1. Correspondences and Their Limits	191	(9)
1.1. Correspondences	192	(6)
1.2. The Limits of Analogy	198	(2)
2. Trinity, Universal Church, and Local Church	200	(4)
3. Trinitarian Persons and the Church	204	(10)
3.1. Relational Personhood	204	(4)
3.2. Perichoretic Personhood	208	(6)
4. The Structure of Trinitarian and Ecclesial Relations	214	(7)
VI. Structures of the Church	221	(38)
1. Charismata and Participation	222	(12)
1.1. Bishop or Everyone?	223	(5)
1.2. The Charismatic Church	228	(6)
2. The Trinity and Ecclesial Institutions	234	(11)
2.1. The Trinity as Model	234	(5)
2.2. Spirit, Institutions, and the Mediation of Salvation	239	(6)
3. Ordination	245	(14)
3.1. Office and Ordination	246	(6)
3.2. Ordination and Election	252	(7)
VII. The Catholicity of the Church	259	(24)
1. The Question of Catholicity	259	(5)
2. Catholicity and New Creation	264	(6)
3. The Catholicity of the Local Church	270	(8)
3.1. Catholicity and Grace	270	(6)
3.2. Catholicity and Creation	276	(2)
4. The Catholicity of Person	278	(5)
Bibliography	283	(24)
Index	307